Let's try and take away some positives from last night's snooze fest

I'll group these two together. Neither were asked to do very much defensively, but both played admirably. Despite being unable to score, both found themselves in decent positions on corners(especially, Gonzalez) and set pieces. Both passed the ball well out of the back, which helped tremendously as we attempted to retain possession.

3. Gatt

Speed, ball control, and talent are the first three things that come to mind. Admittedly, it was the first time I've had a chance to see Gatt play, and I have to say I was impressed. He did give the ball away a few times, and he painstakingly tried to do too much every time he found the ball at his feet, but it's obvious he has a bright future with the USMNT.

We also had a few runs of play where we connected 10, 15, 20 consecutive passes. They were mostly in our half or around midfield, and very little of the play resulted in decent scoring chances, but we did pass the ball around somewhat effectively.

re: Let's try and take away some positives from last night's snooze fest(Posted by Sheep on 1/30/13 at 10:36 am to gideon)

quote:1. Gonzalez 2. Besler

I learned absolutely nothing about these two last night, with the possible exception being that Gonzalez is a useful target on corners.... which I think most of us knew already.

Other than that, there was nothing to really judge them on.

Canada's lone chance came when Tony Beltran let DeRosario run free in the box, which produced a great save from Johnson.

Other than that, we didn't learn anything about them other than they didn't do something horribly stupid like get a red card in the first half. (like Jimmy Conrad did in one of the Camp Cupcake friendlies a couple years back...)

re: Let's try and take away some positives from last night's snooze fest(Posted by Meursault on 1/30/13 at 10:53 am to gideon)

I think the consensus, if the match thread is to be taken into utmost consideration, is that every single player who suited up last night for US is garbage, and should never step on the field again. Every single one.

re: Let's try and take away some positives from last night's snooze fest(Posted by JLock on 1/30/13 at 11:17 am to Wait For It...)

What pissed me off the most was that they had no idea what to do when they got into the final third. A lot of times they'd either pass back or knock it out wide to whip in a useless cross. Canada parked the fricking bus last night and this was a game that really showed the flaws in our attacking players. There is zero creativity from any of them. There was no attempt to try and break down Canada's defense with combination play, and nobody on that team is technically gifted enough to try and beat a few players to open things up. And let's be honest here. The attacking play has almost always been the weakest part of American soccer, due to the youth game being based on size and speed. Until that changes we're going to continue to suck in the final third, because you're not going to be able to teach grown men to play the game entirely differently from what they grew up learning, where as with the youth players, there will still be a chance to mold them. Just my two cents

ETA: tl;dr American attacking play sucks and will continue to suck until there are changes from the youth system up

re: Let's try and take away some positives from last night's snooze fest(Posted by 225bred on 1/30/13 at 2:23 pm to gideon)

Agudelo looked creative, Besler and Omar looked good(Omar needs to take Boca's spot asap) Feilhaber looked 2 steps ahead of everyone else. GAM and Zusi looked like they were varsity kids trying to play with the JV team. Gatt's aggression and work rate was impressive, can't teach his caliber of speed. I feel bad for Wondo, I really wish he could contribute for the USMNT. Beckerman did what was asked of him. just my 2 cents

re: Let's try and take away some positives from last night's snooze fest(Posted by SouthOfSouth on 1/30/13 at 4:03 pm to gideon)

It's hard not to like Gatt. He brings it. I think he looks like a good off-the-bench type that will bring some emotion and speed to the second half. Thought he needed to pass it away a bit earlier a couple times, but was excited to see him play.

One of my favorite players in FIFA so I have been excited to see him play.